Tina Cane

Tina Cane was born in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City and grew up in the East and West Village. She earned her BA at the University of Vermont and her MA in French literature at Middlebury College. Cane is the author of Year of the Murder Hornet (Veliz Books, 2022), Body of Work (Veliz Books, 2019), Once More with Feeling (Veliz Books, 2017), Dear Elena: Letters for Elena Ferrante (with art by Esther Solondz, Skillman Avenue Press, 2016), and The Fifth Thought (Other Painters Press, 2008). Her poems and translations have appeared in numerous publications, including The Literary Review, Spinning Jenny, Two Serious Ladies, The Tupelo Quarterly, jubilat, and The Common. Cane’s debut novel-in-verse for young adults is titled Alma Presses Play (Make Me a World, 2021). 

Cane served as the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island from 2016 to 2024 and is the founder/director of Writers-in-the-Schools, RI, and a writing instructor for Frequency Providence. In her capacity as poet laureate, Cane established Rhode Island’s first youth poetry ambassador program in partnership with the Rhode Island Center for the Book, and brought the Poetry-in-Motion program from the New York City Transit System to Rhode Island’s statewide buses. She was named as a 2020 Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets.

Cane is also the creator/curator of the distance reading series, Poetry is Bread.